Stan Perkins Quotations

So many things had to be in place and had to happen for this song to do what it did. It boggles the mind.

Most times, he didn't need to mow his yard that much. He just liked being out there, having people wave at him, or come up to talk.

I watched him around guys like George Harrison and Eric Clapton, and I realized the look in their eyes was the same look I had when I looked at Dad.

I was a chunky little kid, and when they sat me in that wagon, it tipped backward and I banged my head on the (concrete) floor. I was howling pretty good, but Dad went outside and cried his eyes out.

With Sam, you went in and basically he turned on a tape recorder, let it run until it was out, and went back and found out what you had. That made country boys like Carl Perkins feel comfortable.

The royalty checks each quarter pay the utilities on this big house.

They stacked (the wagons) up from the most expensive on the bottom to the cheapest on top, and Dad had to go for the one on top.

It really starts with the day Elvis Presley went to Sun Studios to record a song for his mother. Sam Phillips didn't like his singing, but a secretary did and kept his phone number. Sam Phillips said one day he needed a white kid who could sing black, and she had Elvis' number in her drawer.

Dad went back to that Western Auto store. The wagons were still stacked the same way. He pointed to the wagon on the bottom and said to the salesman, 'That's the biggest one you have, but not the biggest one you sell, right?' The salesman told him he could order a bigger one. Dad told him get it ... and when they put me in that wagon, and you couldn't see me from under the (wood panels) on the side. ... That was what 'Blue Suede Shoes' meant to him.

Dad wasn't a one-hit wonder, but he never had another moment like that.

If there's something he's proudest of, it was that center. That became the driving force in his life.